1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hair care product containing a yolk antibody, and more specifically to a hair care product which contains as an effective ingredient a yolk antibody obtained from an egg of a domestic fowl immunized using human hair (which may hereinafter be called simply "hair" for the sake of brevity) as an antigen, can impart good touch feeling to hair, and can reduce hair damage.
2) Description of the Related Art
Keeping step with the increase in individual choice of fashion in recent years, the tendency of preference toward long hair has steadily taken root. In addition, there is also increased diversity as to the style of long hair available because of hairdressing such as localized or partial head permanent waving. Reflecting this, hair damage such as split and broken hair is also increasing steadily.
Such hair damage is considered to have occurred because the structure of hair was weakened due to modification of the keratin protein by chemical treatment such as permanent waving, making the hair more susceptible to physical influences such as hot-air blowing and brushing.
As a measure for the prevention of such hair damage, it is known to add collagen, keratin protein, egg albumin protein or the like to various hair care products in order to cope with deterioration of the protein structure due to chemical treatment, thereby to form a protective film on the surface of hair and to improve the water retaining property and flexibility (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 280413/1986).
Although protein components such as collagen, keratin protein and egg albumin protein can exhibit some benefit in the prevention of damage by chemical treatment of hair, these effects are not fully satisfactory.
To improve set retention, it is also known that an antiserum which has been obtained using hair particles as an antigen (U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,161 which is hereby incorporated herein by reference) will improve the hair.
However, the antiserum used in the above method is obtained from the blood of an animal immunized with hair particles. The procedure for obtaining the antiserum is therefore irksome and, moreover, the yield available from a single practice of the procedure is low, so that the above method is not considered satisfactory industrially.
In particular, it is well known that an antiserum obtained from a mammal has complement-activating effects so that it tends to stimulate neutrophils to cause local inflammation. It is therefore preferred not to use a mammal antiserum in hair care products. Further, an antiserum is an antibody obtained from the blood of an animal so that the antiserum is undesirable from the standpoint of animal protection.
With a view toward reducing the frictional force on the surface of hair, on the other hand, an oil component such as a higher alcohol, an ester oil, fluid paraffin or silicone oil is added to and utilized in hair rinse agents, hair treatment agents, hair brushing agents and the like.
It is, however, the current situation that such oil components cannot achieve satisfactory treatment effects for damaged hair although they show certain effects for the prevention of hair damage. Further, use of an oil component in a large proportion in hair care products results in an increase in stickiness and greasiness and may hence impair how the hair feels after use.